Jailing of Christian Brother Paul Hendrick does not end victim’s legal battles

The convicted child abuser Paul Hendrick is a former student, teacher and principal of Westland Row Christian Brothers School, Dublin 2. He was the founder of the Life Centre, on nearby Pearse Square, which provided services to early school leavers.

He was awarded the Row Award by the Westland Row past pupils’ union in 2009, which cited his long engagement with the school, the role he played in the early 1990s raising funds for its refurbishment, the role he played in the school’s transition from being a boys-only school to a mixed school in 1998, and his role in the establishment of the now-closed centre, which was praised in its time for the support it provided to disadvantaged young people.

The past pupils’ union revoked the award from Hendrick earlier this year after he pleaded guilty to the abuse of former student Kenneth Grace on dates between May 1980 and July 1984 at locations including Dublin, Tipperary and Waterford. Until he was charged in 2020, Hendrick was a senior figure in the Christian Brothers in Ireland.

It is understood that Hendrick attended the school from his family home in South Dublin. He joined the Christian Brothers when he was 14, the teaching staff at Westland Row in 1978, and became the school principal in 1981, a post he held until his retirement in 1994.

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Grace, the former Westland Row student who was abused by Hendrick, told the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that the abuse he suffered started when he was just 13. It included Hendrick wrestling with him when they were both stripped to their underwear, and Hendrick whipping Grace or getting Grace to whip him.

He was afraid to tell anyone what was going on, Grace said. He told the court he did not consider himself a survivor of sexual abuse, but rather someone who got by on a daily basis and had to deal with the deep emotional scars left by what was done to him.

Grace is suing the congregation of the Christian Brothers over the abuse he suffered from Hendrick, but the congregation has adopted a legal strategy that has been described as “cynical” and a form of “double abuse”.

The Christian Brothers, like most religious congregations, is an unincorporated association, meaning it has no personality in law separate from its members. Most congregations, when taken to court, nominate a member who then represents the association for the purpose of the litigation, but the congregation has opted not to do this in the case taken by Grace.

The same strategy was adopted by the Christian Brothers in a number of other historical child sex abuse cases currently before the courts. The strategy makes it very difficult for the plaintiffs to get their cases heard, tying them up in procedural difficulties and forcing them to return repeatedly to court and to run up associated legal costs.

In the Hendrick case, which was initiated in 2019, the court was told by the then head of the Christian Brothers in Ireland, Brother Edmund Garvey, that he was not prepared to be sued as nominee for the order. A similar position has been taken by his successor, Brother David Gibson, since he took over as provincial.

Because the congregation has adopted this strategy, Grace, who is being represented by Coleman Legal solicitors, has had to sue all the members of the order from the time of the abuse, most of whom are now older. He has had to repeatedly secure orders from the court to get information that the congregation has chosen not to hand over voluntarily.

The congregation opted not to voluntarily disclose the names of the members who Grace wanted to sue, so he had to go to court to get an order forcing the congregation to disclose the names, of which there are more than 100.

His legal team then had to go to court to get an order adding the brothers to the case as co-defendants alongside Garvey, Gibson and Hendrick. Addresses for the brothers secured from the congregation by way of a court order showed one of the men was in Arbour Hill Prison in Dublin, while another was in Mountjoy. Both had been convicted of child abuse. One has since been released.

In recent months, Gibson, who is represented in court by Frank Buttimer solicitors, fought the suggestion that he become involved in contacting the representatives of the estates of 14 brothers who died since the list of brothers was supplied in 2021.

When the court ruled in Grace’s favour, and Gibson was asked to co-operate with the process of contacting representatives of the deceased brothers, it transpired that 13 of the deceased had left their estates to Gibson.

John Gordon SC, for Grace, said it took a court order to learn that Gibson was the beneficiary of these assets. “I’m not going to speculate as to why Br Gibson found it so difficult to give us this information,” he said. He has described the attitude being adopted by the congregation in the case as “cynical”.

Mr Justice Tony O’Connor, who has been presiding over the multiple applications made on behalf of Grace as he tries to advance his claim, at one stage referred to the “procedural morass” that has arisen. Grace’s legal team has said the strategy adopted by the congregation raises serious Constitutional issues in relation to a person’s right to access justice.

More recently, Grace has managed to get judgments in default against a large number of the brothers because they have failed to appoint solicitors or make an appearance in the case despite being served with legal papers.

Each of these men is now jointly and severally liable for any damages that the court might later deem appropriate, as well as legal costs that might be awarded against them. Given that most of the men own little or nothing by way of assets, it remains to be seen how the legal team representing Grace will go about converting any judgments that are achieved into compensation for their client.

Because the Christian Brothers is an unincorporated association, it cannot own property directly and so uses people and corporate entities to hold its assets in trust. The houses in Ballyfermot and Dún Laoghaire in Dublin that Hendrick was living in over recent years are held in trust by members of the order.

Why is it so difficult to sue the Christian Brothers?

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A company called Christian Brothers CLB owns property in Gorey, Co Wexford and Monkstown, Co Dublin, according to files in the Land Registry. In the early 2000s, the congregation transferred its schools to a trust called the Edmund Rice Schools Trust, so these properties are no longer owned by the congregation. Other property has been handed over to the State as part of a redress scheme for people who suffered abuse while in institutions.

Gibson is the head of the Congregation of Christian Brothers, European Province, which is a registered charity. The financial information disclosed on the website of the Charities Regulator states it had income of €7.3 million in the year to the end of August 2021, and expenditure of €6.3 million. It had assets of €66.3 million at the end of the period.

The European Province (which includes Ireland and the UK and is headquartered in Marino, Dublin) is one of seven provinces globally that report to the congregation leader in Rome, Brother Peter Clinch, who is Australian. A meeting of the congregation’s global general chapter in Dublin last year elected Clinch to the top role. The congregation is active globally, particularly in development work in poorer countries.

[ New Christian Brother leader adopts same legal strategy in abuse case, court hears ]

The strategy being adopted by the congregation in the case taken by Grace is being replicated in around 30 cases currently before the High Court, according to Kathrin Coleman, a senior solicitor with Coleman Legal. The approach is putting claimants “through the wringer”, she has said, and has the effect of making the congregation “a bit untouchable”.

Damian O’Farrell, an independent Dublin city councillor, who successfully sued the Christian Brothers over historical sex abuse some years ago, is in contact with a number of claimants who have had to seek multiple court orders because the congregation will not appoint a nominee.

“This is called a double abuse, what the Christian Brothers are doing,” said O’Farrell.

A request for a comment from the congregation met with no response.